Which GM was most or least preapred for the new CBA reality?

Well the free agent frenzy is dying down, many teams are focusing on resigning thier RFA’s and training camp looms around the corner. Many teams have a whole new look, some went with pretty much what they had and some just seem to have been caught with their pants down.

Just wondering what peoples opinions are on which team or teams seem to have been making moves over the past season KNOWING what was coming, and which ones just seemed to wake up the morning after the new CBA was signed and said ” What the…. “

I think teams that were in the middle of a rebuild, ie: The Rangers and The Canadiens might have been well prepare for this, though the rebuild scenario does little to explain Washington. Teams that loaded themselves for bear prior to the last playoffs, Toronto comes to mind, have had to do a little scrambling and still have positions that need filling. Colorado is another team that seems to me weren’t overly prepared for the new NHL.

Woul be interested in other opinions?

131 Responses to Which GM was most or least preapred for the new CBA reality?

honestly i must agree Pierre Lacroix wasnt really prepaired. he is in my view though one of the best GMS i have seen in a while but he wasnt prepaired at all. he spent to much time trying to get forsberg and foote rather than trying to find suitable replacements.

Yes, Lemieux did make that statement. However, your assumption that winning the Lottery and drafting Crosby produced it, is wrong. The statement was just a repeat of an earlier one.

That same exact statement you are referring to was made by Lemieux before the Lottery during his celebrity golf tournament in Pittsburgh. During that time Lemieux had said their plan was to bring top caliber free agents and be very agressive during the free agency period. Craig Patrick had also stated such before the lottery.

In fact, it was well known in all hockey circles that the Penguins wanted Zhamnov desperately. But when the lottery happened, they decided to plug Crosby into the spot that Zhamnov would have been, and did not pursue the russian. So althought admitedly Crosby was a boost and will be for years to come (as a player and financially), they basically had another player ready to step into that position already in mind and were ready to get him.

In fact, I think not signing Zhamnov was a mistake which they are not sure how to fix since Florida signed Stumple, and right now they are short of the right players at center (plenty of centers available, but not the right ones for the fit). It is possible they can plug in some of the tons of center prospects they have into the big club, but it’s a gamble. And the free agents left are either the right player, but suspect because they are too old, or the wrong player all together.

I think we will see a trade coming from Pittsburgh for a center, if not before the season, certainly before the trading deadline.

Now, you are absolutely that they were forced to spend the money, but not for the reason you mentioned. They have to, in order to ensure a slots license, which will in turn ensure a new arena.

Yes. The Pens were prepared. They had a plan all along. And they almost executed it perfectly, from their own point of view (althought I’m not sure not getting more defense is right). From the financial point of view, it is an incredible success. In fact, at this point they are afraid they might be turning away ticket buyers, because there won’t be enough types of tickets.

They are running the risk of running out of single game tickets in their entirity for their high attendance games. There are even suggestions from the media to people, to get together and buy a 20 games season plan, in order to ensure they get seats to those traditional high attendance games. On top of that, OLN is in the process of putting together their schedule and they are on talks with FoxSportsPittsburgh (who televises all the Pens, unless another chain has exclusivity) and apparently the OLN lineup will be heavy with Penguins games for national broadcast in the US. Add to this that they have a current avalanche of advertisers who want to be displayed in the arena and want to be mentioned in the same breath as “Penguins” and are trying to accomodate them all.

Not bad, huh? They have certainly done their best to help themselves get that license, and ultimately that arena.

I agree almost completely. However, in that entire time it has gotten them TWO Stanley cups While Philly for example, with their back checking and clearing of the net, don’t have one to show since 1975.

With these new rules the jury is still out on which one will be the right one. But I certainly I’m not sold on those Philly slower-than-my-granma (especially Hatcher) defensemen. I don’t care how tough they are.

P.S. Granma, if you read this, I know you are much faster than Hatcher, but it was the only way I could think of making the point of how slow he is.

Given, they had to cut contracts that were entirely B.S. Buying out leclair, amonte etc are not some brilliant scheme. They are players who made way too much for what they can produce. Leclair 8 million? WHAT!. But these managment moves as I said ABOVE will not be proven fruitful until the end of the year at the very least. As far as planning, it’ll be very scary when the Cap goes down to 33-34 million, yikes!. Granted, as it stands on paper Clarkie seems to have done a great job. Would I have liked to have Forsberg or Hatcher on my team, YEAH. But when looking at this CBA, it can turn ugly very quickly. I hope for Philly fans that it works out, but all i am saying is to not cast judgement yet, lets wait after a few years. That’s the real Litmus test.

Have you read my post?, cause what your saying does not entirely relate with the aim of what I am saying. Read it again. If your feel its a personal shot at your Flyers, well… Its not, not even close. Take a deep breath enjoy the new era of hockey. Flyers fans RELAX, take a Paxil or something.

I still laugh when I hear the word “plan” associated with the Penguins. The penguins were a sinking ship. They had to spend a little more cause the Cap requires them to do so, no more 18-19 million dollar payrolls. Secondly, the Lemieux’s statement came after the draft, saying this will give them a boost to get some players to play with Crosby and company. This is the effect he has had. The second he was picked, ticket prices have gone through the roof. Do you really think that the people are there to see Palffy and Gonchar? ahhh NO. This is not a bad thing, Gretzky did it in LA, however the Pens fans better step up cause Lemieux and Crosby, if they don’t work nothing will. Pack it up and head to Winnipeg where people appreciate the game.

In the actual press conference at the golf tournament, which I listened to its entirity, he even mentions that they plan on adding top caliber players and that he would not be the highest payed player on the team after signing the free agents. If I find the link to the press conference I’ll post it too, just because you’re so insistant.

Yes, they were a sinking ship. Yes, Crosby is a boost. But that doesn’t take away that they had a plan in place, including paying off all their debts in full:

Now, there’s no denying that plan has been in good part a major success beyond what they had thought, thanks to Crosby.

As far as payrolls, check their payrolls prior to deciding to dump everyone, and you’ll see that it was at $34M. That’s the SAME EXACT payroll they plan for this year. And that is with a higher ticket attendance already in place. They only hit those $20M payrolls when they decided to dump everyone and get ready and hope for the new CBA.

As far as ticket sales…the tickets have spiked the most (in percentage) w/ Crosby, but they did the same every time they signed a new agent, up to the point that they can’t keep up:

You’re entitled to your opinion, however flawed. But please, if you are going to make statements and reaffirm them, check your references. Otherwise, when someone shows you in black and white actual fact, you will only look like an opinionated jackass.My apologies in advance to all genuine donkies out there.

“If you think Lindso and Allsion aren;t ass’s why did their last 2 teams give up on them and not resign them for minimal wages. think about it, the managers don’t want them the team doesn’t want them.”

you don’t have a clue, do you?

It was the player’s choice to sign or not. They wanted to play in Toronto, they signed here. That’s it. Check with your friends at recess.

I’m not saying that what they have done isn’t good. I’m saying if they would have done it a year earlier it would have been better.

How many offers do you think Forsberg received before signing? How many do you think he would have received if you went after him BEFORE the lockout? It sure gives you the power position at the negotiating table if you do it pre-lockout. I’m willing to bet they could have saved some in his salary, and then sat back and waited for the fantastic bargains rather then worrying about getting a team together.

I think it was genius how Gretzky and Barnett did this. Think about, people on this site (i.e. kraut182) don’t even think the coyotes team is any different from the last time they played. Wow, so many moves and signings and people didn’t even see it. Now that is planning ahead.

Your such a *****ING MORON, now your pissing me off. Its this simple, Crosby brings money to the city and attracts players cause they want to play with him. Do you really think that Gonchar Pallfy(by the way good luck with them, hope you have a good goaltender, Oh no YOU DON”T lol) would have come and been given those contracts, if Crosby was not there, ahhh NO. Secondly Crosby will remain with the club for atleast the next 7 years, which should bring some stability. were they gonna bring in free agents YES, of course, cause like every team, there were at most 7-8 players under contract, everybody had to get free agents. “I can see their plan: Before Draft Lottery: “Man I hope we get Crosby, then we can get some free agents and use him as our key to get them” After Draft Lottery: “YES! I can’t believe we got it! now we don’t have to B.S our way to get free agents”. Simply said CROSBY has had a huge impact. Secondly like I said, you fans better step up and support the team, cause quite frankly it is a waste for them to be there unless support is given.

OBVIOUSLY you didn’t even bother to watch the video link I posted or apparently neither the press links, but I get it clearly now. You are just one of those hockey cry babies who did not get Crosby in their team, and all you can do is whine.

Waaaaaaa. Waaaaaaa. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

And I wasted my time with intelligent banter and worthy links on a baby. Shame on me!

WOW, your one *****ed up individual. I thought it was a waste of time aswell, but I guess looking at porn all day can be tiresome even for you. Anyways tell Thibault to put some SPF 45, cause that red light’s gonna burn. HAHA have fun with mediocrity, make sure you wear a helmet to the Mellon Arena. “OH PITTSBURGH KNEW WHAT THEY WERE DOING THEY HAD A PLAN” Hahaha. Mario said so himself, yeah he’s gonna say, sorry Fans, we have no money, but support us anyways. GO read some more Pittsburgh news, cause hockey is obviously their forte, lol.

It is OH SO *****ING easy to “be prepared” when you have mailed it in each of the past 5 years or so, so you could get great draft picks. THEN your ping-pong ball drops first… and as a DIRECT result, you sell out your building for the rest of the season and all sorts of free agents are interested in signing with you.

That ping-pong ball MADE Pittsburgh this year, period.

As for Clarke… he had a couple big advantages over some other teams… excellent young prospects whom he can afford to start, and no-brainer buyouts to free up some cash.

Frankly, Philadelphia’s forwards don’t look much better, if at all! than the Leafs; not this year. In a couple years Carter and Richards *might* be superstars.

Boston was the best prepared. They were both competitive AND nto committed to long-term salary.

Philadelphia has no-brainer moves to make.

Detroit, Colorado and Toronto had traded away youth and the future to take a shot at the cup the last couple years. They were left with aging expensive vets… they were in the worst position with this CBA. Of that group. JFJ has done the best so far (except keeping Belfour).

You have to admit that was a tremendous run they made last fall with everything from being Pedro’s daddy to his little Dominican midget friend with Johny Damon’s long hair and saying we are to dumb to know we aren’t supposed to win.Coming back from being down in the series vs NYY. Players doing whisky shots in the locker before games.

The curse is over now. Question is has it been reversed? That is a creepy thought now isn’t it?

Those figures were simply thrown out by the odds makers for the sake of having to put some numbers out.I am sure by the time the final NHL regular season game has been played that there will be at least 5 or 6 teams whose odds will be in single didget #’s.

However with #’s like those one could take $100.00 and throw up some money on a few teams playing on those odds now and stand better chances come april as some of those teams chances will improve and the payout would be based on odds a time of bet.

I think Tampa Bay definitely wasn’t ready for the new CBA even though they had a low salary the year they won the Cup. It is only natural with their depth in young talented forwards that they couldn’t re-sign them all even though they were one of the teams who wanted a cap. They lost Khabibulin which is a tremendous loss and next year St. Louis and Richards are both UFA’s. They already signed Lecavalier to a 4 year deal worth a good amount of bucks.